Turning Points Winter Special 2013: Snowed In
by WynterSky
Summary: Sasuke's first mission with his new partner in the Akatsuki goes poorly, to say the least. Can he and Deidara survive being stuck in a cave together without attacking each other?


**Snowed In**

Sasuke adjusted the collar of his Akatsuki cloak to stop the cold wind from blowing down it. Deidara was no longer bothering with proper attire and had installed himself in a far corner of the cave they were holed up in, bundling himself up in several blankets from a storage scroll.

The cave had originally been intended as a spot to take a brief break while they got their bearings—Deidara's sense of direction was not the best and Sasuke was unfamiliar with the area—but quickly turned into a more long-term prospect with the weather took a sudden turn for the worse. The wind was currently blowing strongly enough that it would be near-impossible for one of Deidara's birds to make any headway in it, and the snow, which had already been very deep, had increased to the point that walking out wouldn't be much easier.

_Well, this is a fine start to my first Akatsuki mission, I must say,_ Sasuke thought as he stared out at the thickening white veil that was all he could see outside.

Behind him, Deidara sneezed. "I told you we should have stopped in the village, un," he grumbled.

"And I told you we didn't have the time to spare for that," Sasuke retorted.

"Well, we're sure going to have to spare it now, aren't we?" Deidara snapped back. "The Leader should have put me in charge, instead of some stupid kid trying to show off, un."

Sasuke ignored Deidara's insult and turned away from the cave entrance, taking up a position opposite where Deidara was sitting. For now he wasn't terribly cold, as he knew certain fire techniques that were very useful for keeping warm, but they could only do so much and the temperature was quickly getting colder. Setting his pack down, he started sorting through it in search of his own storage scrolls. As he did so, his fingers brushed well-worn fur. Fiercely quelling the memories that threatened to break forth, Sasuke shoved the toy aside. _I don't know why I'm keeping it anyway, I'm far too old for that sort of thing now._

Once he had completely finished examining the contents of his pack, Sasuke found himself in a bit of a quandary. "Deidara," he called, holding up one of the storage scrolls he had found, "I had three of these when we left our last stop, but one of them is missing now."

"Fancy that, un," Deidara replied snidely. "Yet another reason why you shouldn't be in charge."

_Fat lot of good 'being in charge' does, considering he has yet to do anything I say without arguing for ten minutes first,_ Sasuke thought, but in the interests of surviving in close quarters to his partner without fighting he didn't say anything out loud.

While the storage scroll that had gone missing wasn't holding anything essential to their mission, it did have all of Sasuke's emergency supplies in it—including his extra blankets. There was one still in his pack, and Sasuke curled himself up in it as best he could, settling back in the corner and wondering where this mission had started to go wrong.

To be completely honest, it had probably gone wrong before it had even started; Deidara had not been in the least pleased to be paired up with a new companion, and Sasuke's being put in charge had only made things worse between them. Sasuke had met Deidara for the first time only a week ago, right before they left on this mission, a relatively simple affair that they were currently on the way back from. Actually, it had been their second meeting but their first instance of spending any meaningful time in each other's company. While Deidara and his original partner Sasori had been the ones who recruited Sasuke for the Akatsuki, Deidara had soon been called away on a different errand and Sasuke hadn't seen him again until ten days ago.

Once Sasuke had been suitably introduced to the Leader (a somewhat cold and distant individual who Sasuke decided was reliable for now although not fully trustworthy), he had been given the instructions for this mission and sent to a rendezvous point.

"Your partner will meet you there, after we work some things out," the Leader explained.

Sasuke had been very eager to successfully complete the mission, as the Leader had been hinting that his reward might consist of information about where Itachi could have gone. Therefore, he had been quite frustrated when he reached the rendezvous point with no sign of his new partner to be seen. There had been three days of waiting—not very pleasant ones, as sitting around in the cheapest hotel available while worrying over what has become of the person who was supposed to meet you is never a pleasant way to spend any length of time.

Finally, as Sasuke was lying in bed on the morning of the fourth day (with nothing to do and instructions to lie low, he hadn't exactly been incentivized to get up early) he heard someone climbing through the window. Or more accurately, he was awoken by the sound of the window opening quietly, and then fully roused with a start as someone practically fell through it, landing with a crash on the rickety table. This table lived up to Sasuke's first impression of it and promptly broke, adding to the noise as well as the cost of Sasuke's hotel stay.

By this point Sasuke was convinced that he was under attack, and threw several kunai and shuriken in the direction of the noise before getting up, tossing his cloak on and walking over to investigate.

As soon as he actually bothered to look where he had been throwing sharp things, Sasuke realized his mistake. "Sorry," he said as he pulled out one of the kunai pinning the intruder's Akatsuki cloak to the floor. "I didn't realize who it was."

Once the newcomer picked himself up, Sasuke quickly recognized him as the blond who had been with Sasori when the Akatsuki first contacted him. "It's Deidara, right?" Sasuke asked.

"Didn't the Leader tell you I would be coming, un?" Deidara snapped without answering the question.

"He said someone would. He didn't say it would be you."

"That's what he told me too," Deidara said. "I don't see why I have to be stuck with the newbie," he grumbled, straightening his now badly-ripped cloak and kicking at the sorry remains of the table. "It's not like I wanted a new partner, un."

Sasuke did his best to remain calm, as he was fairly sure that attacking his partner first thing would not endear him to the Leader. (At this point he had not yet met Hidan and Kakuzu.) Besides, he could see somewhat why Deidara was upset. "Let's not argue about it," he said as appeasingly as he could. "The Leader gave me instructions for our mission, we should look them over before we leave."

"Wait…the Leader gave _you_ the instructions, un?" Deidara demanded, not sounding any less angry than he had when he first saw Sasuke. "Let me guess, he said you would be the one in charge, too."

"Well, yes, but—"

"Now that's just peachy, isn't it?" Deidara shouted. "Aren't I the one who should be in charge, un? I'm older than you, you know. But no, you just waltz right in with your sob story and your fancy eyes and the Leader lets you do everything! I've done more for the Akatsuki than you ever will, and I'm not going to be your lackey, un!"

By this point, Sasuke's plans of appeasement had been discarded. "Would you like a demonstration of the 'fancy eyes'?" he retorted, letting the Sharingan swirl into focus as he looked up at Deidara.

Deidara quickly backed down, kicking angrily at a snapped-off table leg as he turned away. "No thanks, un," he muttered.

"Then let's get going."

The rest of the mission hadn't gone much better than that. Deidara had continually refused to follow Sasuke's directions unless threatened or out-argued, both of served to cause their mission to take much longer than it should have. It was one such argument that had delayed their progress enough for them to be caught in the storm and forced to take shelter in the cave. While they had been far enough north that some snow was to be expected at this time of year, it was early in the season for such a bitter storm.

It reminded Sasuke somewhat of the last time he had been trapped in a snowy cave, a situation he did not like recalling at all. He was still confused as to what could have fueled Kakashi's sudden betrayal, but most of that confusion had been replaced by anger now. His current plan was to do whatever it took to find Itachi—the one person left he could trust—and as working with the Akatsuki would further that goal, he would stay with them for as long as suited his purposes.

If he could survive dealing with his stubborn, insubordinate partner, that is. Once they got out of this cave, Sasuke wanted nothing better than to shove Deidara into a nice cold snowbank.

_Okay, don't think about the cold_, Sasuke told himself quickly. His Akatsuki cloak and single blanket were only helping a little with the cold, and thinking about it just made it feel worse. He glared jealously at Deidara and his cozy pile of blankets, but turned away when Deidara looked his direction.

"I'm hungry, un," Deidara announced.

Sasuke ignored him.

"Have we got anything to eat?"

"What's with the 'we' all of a sudden?" Sasuke retorted. "_I_ have some food, but that doesn't mean I want to share it with _you._"

"Fine, have it your way, un," Deidara grumbled, reluctantly tossing off some of the blankets so he could get to his pack. Sasuke watched him, since it was a bit more interesting than watching the snow piling up in front of the cave entrance.

Spreading one of the blankets out on the cave floor so his things wouldn't get dirty, Deidara began laying the contents of his pack out. He had packed more lightly than Sasuke (who was still carrying around silly things like the stuffed squirrel he couldn't bring himself to get rid of), and most of the contents consisted of various explosives, a few shirts and hair accessories, and several storage scrolls.

One too many storage scrolls, in fact.

"Hey, what's that doing in your stuff?" Sasuke asked, stalking over to snatch up one of them. As he had thought when he caught a glimpse of it, it was of Fire Country make, unlike the rest of Deidara's scrolls. "This is one of mine. I was looking for it—it had my blankets in it…" Deidara quickly tried to hide some of the blankets under his Akatsuki cloak as Sasuke realized what had happened. "You took it!" he shouted. "We're supposed to be working together, how is that supposed to help."

"It's not like you were using anything from it, un," Deidara retorted.

"Well, maybe that's because I wasn't freezing my toes off in a cave at that time, did you consider that?"

"You would have forgotten it anyway if I hadn't taken it."

"And how do you figure that?" Sasuke snapped, bringing out the Sharingan again since it was the only thing that seemed to have an effect on Deidara's continually recalcitrant attitude. "Give it back!"

"Why should I? You left it at our campsite!"

"I didn't leave it, I was going to pick it up again. It's mine anyway, hand it over!"

Sasuke snatched for the scroll, which Deidara promptly held over his head out of Sasuke's reach (but only just). This didn't work for very long as Sasuke then tackled Deidara, leading to them wrestling on the floor of the cave for control of the scroll.

Finally, Sasuke got his scroll out of Deidara's hands only to have it slip from his own chilled fingers and roll across the floor, stopping in front of a new pair of feet.

"I told the Leader this would happen," Sasori said as he leaned over to pick up the scroll.

Sasuke and Deidara both stared at Sasori in shock as they detangled themselves. "How long have you been here, un?" Deidara asked.

"Oh, I've been following you the whole time," Sasori stated calmly.

"What! Why?" Sasuke demanded. "Did you think I was going to sell out on you or something?"

"No, nothing like that," Sasori explained. "We just wanted to know if you could work together."

"Well we can't, un, like you must have seen, so can we be partners again now?" Deidara asked quickly.

"Yes, I suppose that's reasonable—"

Deidara glared triumphantly at Sasuke.

"—but Sasuke will be joining us from now on," Sasori finished. "The Leader has decided that it's better if you two are with someone your own age."

"Okay, fine, but can it be someone my own age who's _not_ the last scion of some stupid and highly overrated bloodline limit, un?" Deidara pleaded.

"I'd much rather have someone who's capable of listening to reason and isn't an explosives junkie," Sasuke added.

"I can see I've got a lot to work with," Sasori sighed.


End file.
